June 1969 was the start of the Trans-Atlantic race to Cork Ireland from Newport Rhode Island at the Brenton reef tower, now just a memory. the finish at Daunt light ship.
Sailing aboard “Carina”. We won our class, in a race that was commemorating the anniversary of the oldest yacht club in the western hemisphere The Royal Cork Yacht Club, founded in 1720. It is hard to summarize a 15 day long race in a few pictures and a few paragraphs.
1969, as many of you may remember was an eventful year. The Newport Bridge was completed. I took the photo of the bridge and the ferry from the stern of “Carina” as we headed out to the start. I returned at the end of the summer, my college roommate picked me up at the airport. The question on everyone’s lips was :”did you go to Woodstock?” To which I replied : “What’s Woodstock?”Perhaps my most memorable moment of the race, was the cold rainy night that the BBC stayed on the air after midnight to carry the landing on the Moon.
After cruising the south and west coasts of Ireland, where the Irish where the greatest of hosts, “Carina’ headed to England for the Admiral’s Cup and the Fastnet race.
